Game Thread - Wiz vs Boston Jan 22, 2011 - WIZ WIN !!!!

[dobrojim]

The Celts board are crying about the refs

I guess they feel that a ref once paid off, should stay paid off. SMH.

[Kanyewest]

If that's how you define a bandwagon team, the wizards certainly have their share. Unfortunately, the wizards havent been good enough and usually have a lot of empty seats. At least we don't pump in artificial noise like boston.

[dobrojim]

Andray needs to rise up and quit looking like a pussy.

Never gonna happen.

Blatche came out with a purpose in the second half. He was crashing the board, attacking the rim, and not backing down one bit against KG. Props to Blatche!

I thought from the time he came out after the T (which was BS) that he
really got some mental backbone and focused on what he needed to do.

[dobrojim]

My analysis:

[snip]


The real turning point was KG trash talking with Andray Blatche. When Blatche was called for a technical foul on Garnett, I believe the Celtics were up 12. Blatche started to play with a lot more intensity which lit a fire into the whole team defensively. Turns out Blatche was up for the challenge and guys like Thornton, McGee, Wall, and Lewis had his back.

KG's intensity at times got the best of him. He often didn't make the extra pass and went one on one with Blatche and took less efficient shots. One time this allowed for Wall to pick his pocket which forced a 24 second violation. KG also played Blatche too agressively defensively; instead of letting Blatche settle for his mid-range jumper which he struggled all season,KG tight on Blatche, which allowed Blatche to drive on KG.


In the 4th quarter, the Wizards simply had more in the tank than an older Celtics team who was coming off a back to back. Celtics were getting away with a lot of defensive screens, KG repuation as a great defender saved him from getting fouls from the officials. But the Celtics just couldn't knock down open jumpers, much like Wizards previous game against the Suns.

Blatche did bump Pierce, they have a right to cry about that.

I actually disagree. The refs made the correct call. Pierce pumped Blatche into the air but since Blatche's vertical is so bad, he was back on the ground with his hands back in the air when Pierce launched himself into Blatche.

I really liked the way Dray toughened up mentally. I want my daughter
to start playing like that. She's a headcase (unvarnished truth) She missed
her only FT attempt in her game last night. Team lost by 1 pt so it was
all her fault even though she's the best FT shooter on the team and
every player who shot a FT for us missed more than they made including
the best player on the team who missed all 4 in the last 2 minutes. She was
inconsolable after the game but I digress

I also felt the non-call Dray on PP was a reasonable call
and a better one that when RR lost the ball out of bounds
or when KG hipchecked another of our players out of bounds
right in front of the ref and got away with it. Edit to add -
Erdan got away with playing more like a pulling guard
for the old Green Bay power sweep on multiple occasions.

re McGee - the C's were clearly gameplanning for N1 and Dray
and had their 3rd string C in, a player with less NBA experience
than McGee. So yeah, JM had some nice moments but I totally
agree with Fish's (and others) take on him. If Flip just plays him
without regard to how he does in terms of being a team player
and other aspects described above, he'll never become nearly
the player we need him to be.

[dobrojim]

Dear LIttle Celtics Fan who Sat Next to Me Tonight,

Hey kid. First of all nice job being a vocal fan but not an annoying fan, you were ahead of the curve for like five or something. I'm sorry you were disappointed that they weren't showing Celtics highlights on the jumbotron but your team is very ugly so that's probably for the best. It's too bad your formative fan experiences can't be in Boston at the Garden but this was pretty much the same crowd but with better accents and black people. You really impressed me with how you handled the tough loss. Sure you were pretty upset, but you barely even cried, way to stay strong. And when you and your dad left with four tenths of a second left I reached over and I took one of those few tears and I drank it. It was delicious.

HOF right there

[Ed Wood]

Actually one of the best parts of the win for me (other than imagining Bill Simmons watching sportcenter with a Beakerface) is the fact that it provided Andray with a very visceral example of why he needs to play with discipline. For a fair amount of the first half he let KG get to him and he way Bad Dray. There were at least two plays where he refused to pass to Wall to initiate a set because he personally wanted to stick it to KG and neither were successful.

Then he calmed down and probably had a talk with the coaching staff during the break and came back in the second playing much more intelligently, and as a result he got to stick it to KG. I always hear that one of the hardest part of being an NBA coach is motivating players to respond to coaching and I can't think of a stronger motivator for Andray than "play the way we want you to and you will beat Kevin Garnett." He's been picking it up lately and I'm getting to the point where I'd turn down one of Rico's dump trades not just because they're all abominably terrible trades but also because I want to see how Andray plays going forward.

[cwb3]

Really impressed by how the Wizards played in the second half. Thought at halftime that this was going to be a blowout. But they toughened up on D in the 3rd and 4th quarter and actually got a good break or two go thier way. I liked how Wall was driving to basket hard at times, it was causing a lot of open looks, and he finished when he had to.